Firefighter uses dogs to teach safety skills

Firefighter Jeff Owens uses Kasey and K.D. to show students how to go out of a window if a door is blocked by fire. HUNTSVILLE, AL - Every school kid knows what to do if their clothes catch on fire - stop, drop and roll.

But will they remember it in a crisis?

Kasey and K.D., two big black dogs, came to town last week to help them remember.

"Oh, they're so cute," said students at Whitesburg Elementary School last week as they filed into the school cafeteria and spotted the two Labrador retrievers on the stage.

Kasey and K.D. live with owner and trainer, Jeff Owens, an Indianapolis firefighter and paramedic when he's not on the road with the dogs. Last week, Owens was in Huntsville where he visited several elementary schools to share fire safety tips.

"Kids have adults stand in front of them all day long," Owens said. "The dogs are the hook to make (the message) memorable."

The two dogs lie quietly at Owens' feet during the presentation he does in front of about 400,000 school kids a year. When it's time, they're ready to shine, barking when asked what kids should do if they find a lighter or matches. Translation: Tell an adult.

They paw the air to show how to feel a door for heat before opening it if the house is on fire. They jump through a hula hoop to illustrate going out of a window, if they can't get out the door.

They even crawl on their bellies to show kids how to escape a house full of smoke. Best of all, they do their own stop, drop and roll, much to the delight of their elementary audience.

"You only do that when your clothes are on fire," Owens told the Whitesburg students. "If the fire is in that corner over there, what should you do"?

Get out and go to the meeting place where your family has agreed to meet in case of an emergency, Owens said.

Owens started Kasey the Fire and Life Safety Dog program on his own 15 years ago and has been sponsored by the Koorsen Fire & Security company for the past 11 years.

"There's a natural attraction between children and dogs," Owens said, and he uses that to reinforce safety tips children have heard but might not remember is times of stress.

"This is a tag, a way to associate" the message, Owens said, and he's done testing to show the program has a high retention rate.

The dogs have been credited with saving 11 lives, both as search and rescue animals but also in cases when children have survived fires.

"When the firefighters asked them how they knew what to do, they said 'Kasey told me,'" Owens said.